Every once in a while somthing in life has a knack of pulling us back to our sub-conscious comfort zone and we won't know about it until we experienced it or when we are smack in the middle of it. We may even feel real upset about doing it. The mere thought of it will drive you the blood pressure high enough to pop any vein in your skull. You will toss and turn, every sense in your body tingling ending up with you going to the toilet every 45 seconds until u have nothing to pass but wind. But when you are there, you just can't help realizing that you enjoyed it before so much that it is actually a part of you that you either forgot or stopped entertaining. Does that make sense?
Such an event happened some time early last year. Our families were invited to an outing at a waterfall somewhere called Sungai Ruan, near Raub. So with my family from Kuantan and Singapore, set out to this waterfall so magical that we had to drive out of state to see. I guess nearer falls like in Templer's Park were too unadventurous. So here i was dreading the thought of going back to nature or sleeping without air-conditioning, like i was born in an air-conditioned womb...though for the foetus it probably felt that way, or going to a place where there were no running water, so you have to wipe your butt cheeks with makeshift leaves or even (heaven forbid) we go somewhere without cable TV!! I couldnt sleep all night, cursing myself for agreeing to this trip to purgatory. so i tossed n turned n went to the bathroom about 2.3 million times.
Morning came, we saddled up and headed out to an uneventful journey. We reached Raub in time for breakfast and met with our 4x4 tour guide....hmmm....getting dodgy here. We were taken to our bungalow and it was a huge 1-storey bungalow with about 7 rooms, a kitchen, couple of baths and cable TV!!! Yeahhhh!!! things were looking up. We then realized that this trip needs to be done in a 4x4 as the terrain and path (yes path, not road) is very rough. I was very perked up when I heard about it, i dunno if it as my macho instinct acting up on the 4x4 thing or just residue of the joy from seeing the availability of running water and cable TV.
We waited until mid morning, changed to our mountain gear (for me it means wearing underwear. You dont want leaches getting in there easily. Dont say I didnt warn you) and chose our 4x4 vehicle. There were about 18 of us including our kids. I chose the longer truck and off we went. It was a good drive and we looked like labourers being herded to the rubber plantation or something. The drive up was really cool, filled with 2 very manly adventures. First the bridge we were supposed to take was washed away by the rain (by the way it was pouring during our drive up. How cool!!! Long time since I stayed out in the rain), so we had to plough through the raging river. It was only tire deep but us city slickers thought it was cool and manly. Like those old beer and cigarette commercials from the time we could have those on TV. Do something manly (sometimes read stoopid), drink a beer (Why do you think you are doing something stupid...DUH!).
We then came to a land slide where the road was blocked by a mountain of mud. The trucks had to scaled a 10 feet 35 degrees slope of mud to continue. The shorter truck crossed it with minimal fuss. We at the longer truck were cheering and taking photos while bumping around like beans in a boy-jumping-pogo-stick's pocket. Thank God for modern cameras. When it came to our turn, our truck got stuck right at the summit of this slope, refusing to slide down the to other side. It was too long. We had to pull the winch from the other truck and then get it to pull our truck. So the drivers got down and started doing their thing, while us city slickers continued to take pictures and feeling really cool we were in this predicament. the passengers of the other truck were so jealous of us...HAHA...too bad!! Nyeah, Nyeah.
So the pulling and tying of the winch was being done by our guides while wishing they could just roll all of us over the cliff. When done, we were still posing and having fun while the guides saw the cliffs as more and more inviting. Finally we got down, sliding and tumbling, getting mud on us all. The winch pulled our truck free! Hurray!! WE got on and came to the waterfall slightly after lunch. The water was superb, the scenery serene and the lunch really, really horrible. We gobbled it and sat around contented. All then jumped into the fall and I immediately jumped out coz the water was about 10 degrees after the rain. Me and the kids got in again and i was showing them all kinds of stuff. It was then i realized that my city kids have not seen a lot of nature and it was also the time that they saw dear old dad as pretty knowledgeable. I gotta enjoy it while it last coz when they hit teens.....
We stayed a while and had the same exciting trip down. Thoroughly exhausted and leach inhabited we reached our bungalow to shower. We were then invited to the orchard behind the bungalow, which we didnt notice when we came. It wasnt big but it had a small stream, a pond, a wooden bridge and lots of trees. RAmbutan, mangosteen, langsat, cocoa and mangoes. My kids came to me and ask if they could climb trees. I felt so embarrassed as I realized that my son aged 10 had not climbed a tree before. When they did, my wife was very protective but kids being kids, they took to it instinctively. Even my then 6 year old girl. I remembered my first tree climbing and I know what joy it was...if you didnt stumble on a nest of red ants.
It was also that time I realized that I was having a WHALE of a time and was stumped. I sat by the stream and recognized that part of the reason was because this reminded me of my roots. I was born in a poor family and we had trees and streams all around us to keep us company. None of that XBox or game boys to entertain us then. I am glad I made that trip and it gave me time to come back to myself and gave my children a little appreciation of nature and stealing others' fruits.
I think from time to time, no matter where we are or how old we are, we should take the time to climb trees....but make sure you have your underwear on.
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